Gofshtein, David Naumovich

Born July 25 (Aug. 6), 1889; died July 12, 1952. Soviet Jewish poet. Member of the CPSU from 1940. Born in Korostyshev into an office worker’s family.

Gofshtein studied in St. Petersburg and Kiev. He began to publish in 1917. Gofshtein counterposed the new motifs of rural life and the joy of labor to bourgeois and nationalist Jewish poetry. Gofshtein’s lyric landscapes are distinguished by their picturesque play of colors and classically perfected form (the collection By the Roads, 1919). The tempo of life in a large city is captured in the cycle City (1919). After the October Revolution, Gofshtein wrote about the greatness of popular revolution and exposed its enemies (the poems “Procession,” “October,” “On the Edge of the Sword,” “You Ask, Quiet Brother”). The appearance of the collection Lyrics (1923) was a significant event in Soviet Jewish literature. The poet responded to the events of Soviet reality and wrote about the struggle of workers in capitalist countries (In the Bright Ruins, 1927; Selected Works, 1937; Selected Works, 1948). Gofshtein’s realistic verse is characterized by energetic rhythm and rich assonances.